Let us spy for 6 months more: NSA asks court for extension of expired surveillance program

Department of Justice officials have asked a federal court to restart the NSA spy programs shut down when portions of the Patriot Act expired on June 1. The US government claims the Freedom Act allows surveillance to continue for six more months.

In a filing to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
(FISC), revealed Monday, the Department of Justice (DOJ)
requested permission to continue the “bulk production of call
detail records” for 180 days, arguing that the USA Freedom Act
allows a six-month transition period.

The motion was filed at 9:50 PM on Tuesday, June
2, shortly after President Obama enacted the Freedom Act
following its passage in the Senate. It was signed by Assistant
Attorney General John P. Carlin and Deputy Assistant Attorney
General Stuart J. Evans.

“The Government respectfully submits that such authorization
is appropriate notwithstanding the Second Circuit's recent panel
opinion in ACLU v. Clapper, No. 14-42 (2d Cir. May 7,
2015),” Carlin and Evans wrote, referring to the Second
Circuit Court’s decision ruling the Section 215 of the Patriot
Act illegal.

“Second Circuit rulings do not constitute controlling
precedent for this Court,” the officials wrote to the FISC.
“Although each such request sought a large number of call
detail records, the vast majority of which ultimately will not be
terrorist-related, the Government has argued and this Court has
agreed… that the NSA bulk telephony metadata collection program
is authorized by Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act.”

Furthermore, the officials wrote, the USA Freedom Act extended
Section 215 powers from the Patriot Act through December 15,
2019.

Ken Cuccinelli and Freedom Works have petitioned the Court to
block phone data collection during the USAF transition:
http://t.co/GN98YI71bA

On June 5, former Virginia attorney-general Ken Cuccinelli and
the conservative group FreedomWorks filed their own motion with the FISC, urging
the court not to approve the government’s request, on grounds
that the NSA program violated the US Constitution’s Fourth
Amendment.

"As we've repeatedly stated before, we believe the program is
lawful," replied Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi.
“Moreover, in passing the Freedom Act Congress provided for a
180 day transition period for the government to continue the
existing collection program until the new mechanism of obtaining
call detail records is implemented.”

Section 215 actually expired on May 31, after the extraordinary
Sunday session of the Senate adjourned without passing the
Freedom Act, partly thanks to the delaying tactics by Senator
Rand Paul (R-KY), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM).
The NSA had to shut down the program by the evening of May 31, to
comply with the law. Senators eventually voted to pass the House-approved text of the USA
Freedom Act on June 2.

Reacting to the rumors the government might request permission to
restart the program, Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), member of the Senate
Intelligence Committee and one of the Senators who crossed the
aisle to work with Paul against the Patriot Act extension, urged
against it.

"I see no reason for the executive branch to restart bulk
collection, even for a few months, and I urge them not to attempt
to do so,” Wyden told the Guardian on June 4. “This
illegal dragnet surveillance violated Americans’ rights for 14
years without making our country any safer, and the
administration should leave it on the ash heap of history.”